How the Lord pulls us up out of the garbage of our past and dances with us on top of the dumpster.

Monthly Archives: May 2016

Today was the sectional baseball game, it was our final game of the high school career. Although our season was not the greatest I am grateful for my son’s chance to play.

To say our season was not the greatest is actually an understatement. I find pearls in the middle of it. We learned to lose a lot. That’s funny, right there.

Another Pearl is that our boys were able to walk out on the field and play. No, it wasn’t always the best performance, but there are some high school students that couldn’t play baseball because they are unable to walk by themselves or even talk.

It’s always a learning experience to be a part of a team. Sometimes the experience is bad, but these experiences are still good learning experiences for the kids. Life does not give us what we want most of the time. So learning how to deal with uncomfortable situations is good for their young minds.

My wonderful husband in spite of not sleeping well last night, helped me do some decorating in the garage for our upcoming open house. We twirled streamers, it was fun and memorable.

We then enjoyed attending another open house. This season is full of celebration. On Saturday we will get to attend the actual graduation. Seems like a graduation is like a wedding, you spend months getting ready for it and then it’s over in a flash.

The Pearl today is the joy of getting to celebrate the good and the bad. Thank you Jesus that we have brains that allow us to walk and talk and think.

Today has already been great and it’s only noon. We are anticipating another open house today celebrating another graduate who is special to us. He has grown up with our son and played baseball together. He is like our own son. So it’s a special celebration.

Today is the Indy 500 , 100th running of the race. For the first time it’s sold out and so it’s televised live. I went to the race once and that was enough. I enjoy watching the festivities from my air conditioned home where I can control the sound.

One of my patients that can’t hardly take a couple of steps without getting out of breath is at the race today. She said she will crawl up 152 steps if she has to. She goes every year and she is not planning to miss. They sit at the very top, she didn’t even want to change her seats to sit in the wheelchair section. She is going to the very top.

Talk about tenacity and perseverance. She vomits on a regular basis and her balance is off, but she is going to the race if it kills her. No pun intended. I am anxiously awaiting to see how she makes it through the race. I’m praying diligently that she gets her dying wish and makes it through the race.

This morning my husband encouraged me to run with him. I did my warm up and my physical therapy exercises before we ran. This really helped and my back didn’t hurt.

My husband is 9 months clean and sober and has lost over 50 pounds. Now he is cheering me on and encouraging me to run faster and I’m having a hard time keeping up with him.

Today he had to slow down for me as my heart rate was in the 160’s. Towards the end he said lets kick it into high gear now. Hah. I said my heart rate is already 172, I am in high gear. What a change from 9 months ago. He couldn’t even run a 100 feet. Now he is speedy Gonzalez. He went out and ran more after the 2.5 miles we ran together.

Today’s Pearl is that my husband and I get to run together and he now pushes me. What a Pearl!

Today was another full day of celebrating. We had two open houses to celebrate young adults who made it through high school. I did some cleaning and exercising and had the privilege of going to church with mom and dad and our son was with us too.

Now I get to chill while my man slaves away on the grill and in the kitchen. I sure do have it made. My husband not only loves to cook, but is also an exceptional chef.

I have never cared for beans, but wow his beans are killer, especially after I eat them. Hah. Some of you will get that one.

The sermon topic tonight was about leadership. The question was posed what is your burden? How can I influence others?

My burden is to protect the vulnerable and I think the way I want to influence others is by being real. This can be done in a loving way not in a rude way. I think we are not doing others a favor if we pretend and lie and say things that sound good because we don’t want to hurt the other person’s feelings.

I don’t believe in being rude, but I also don’t believe in being polite to the point of being nauseating.

I think the influence I want to leave on the world is the ability to be real and give people the hard truth without being rude. I would hope that by my uncanny ability to be honest and real it would in turn give others permission to be themselves.

My Pearl today is the choice I have to influence others in a positive way or a negative way. Either way I will influence others, but it’s my choice which way the atom turns. I pray the Lord gives me the words and the direction to be a positive influence.

I was reading the gospel of John and I’m always touched by the prayer of Jesus for us when he says, “My prayer is not that you take them out of the world, but you protect them from the evil one. He goes on to say that we as believers are not part of the world, just like he is not part of the world.

Jesus prays that we would be sanctified by the truth which is Gods word.

How am I going to be sanctified by Gods Word? I would think it’s by studying His word and meditating on how his Word applies to my life. Some days I do better than others.

I need to make a practice of putting on The Lords thoughts and asking his spirit to control my thoughts, feelings and actions.

Once again some days I do better at staying in sync with the Holy Spirit and other days not so much.

I was well aware of my speed while driving today and did well to stay within the speed limit. I was able to make a couple of bereavement visits and attend a funeral.

I enjoy the celebration of life at a funeral. I wonder what people will say about me at a my funeral? I hope that my jokes are shared and there is a lot of laughter.

I love to watch funny things on tv and read jokes and laugh as much as possible. I also hope that what people will remember about me is that I was real and genuine.

I will never be perfect and don’t expect myself to be anywhere near perfect. However, in the middle of my imperfections I simply hope that I provided a place for everyone to be themselves around me.

I want to be real, giving others permission to be real and be themselves.

Of course I would hope that the joke I created would be shared..what did one strawberry say to another strawberry..we are gettin in a jam here!

My Pearl today is that I get the privilege of celebrating life everyday. I love my job. The journey to drive slow continues.

Today was another memory made for our senior. Show choir’s final banquet, full of laughter and final memories. I like how the choir teachers poured their hearts into our students. I could tell they really enjoy teaching the students and have left an impression on their lives.

Although I am tired of the last of everything, I was glad to see the joy between all the students. As each one won an award and a fun or kind word was spoken about them their faces lit up.

I remember how I felt when I was their age and I see how positive words and affirmation helps our students grow and learn to love themselves.

I wish I would have had positive words of affirmation when I was a teenager. I grew up aching to hear positive words of affirmation. As a child grows up they only know what others tell them. If they hear they are fat and ugly and stupid then that it what they believe. If they are told they are smart, good looking and wanted they will believe it.

As my son has gone through 12 years of school, I can say he has been very blessed with all his teachers. I don’t remember which grade it was, but there was one teacher I didn’t care for an other than that I think our son had the privilege of having some wonderful role models for teachers.

I was very concerned about this when we moved here to the big city from a small town of 2500 people. We moved here in 2007, so for 9 of his 12 years he was here in the same school district. I feel the Lord led us to this district and our son has bloomed where he was planted.

We were blessed while we were in the small town and our son was allowed to go to preschool for two years before he started kindergarten. He grew in leadership by leaps and bounds during those two years. The teacher said he could run the class if she wasn’t there, he was only four years old.

The Pearl today is to look back and see my answered prayers. I prayed for guidance when we were moving here and I know he led us to the perfect house leading to the perfect school. Thank you Jesus for answered prayer.

We accomplished a lot today. The painters finished painting, we cleaned windows, blinds and floors. Tomorrow the carpet cleaners are coming.

It’s nice to get our spring cleaning done and get ready for our son’s open house. A year ago I couldn’t even clean the windows because of my neck pain. I really don’t care to clean, but I don’t like a dirty house and so the options are pretty simple. Either I clean my house so I can live in it or I live in a dirty house. The latter is not really an option.

Growing up Amish, cleanliness was next to Godliness. The earlier you got up to do your laundry and the cleaner your house was, the more Godly you were considered.

When people gathered for church the discussion revolved around the garden, sewing, canning and of course who had their laundry out on the line by 5 AM. I can still remember the name of the lady that beat the whole community.

I would hear the ladies saying, Oh yeah did you see that so and so had her laundry out already at 4:30 in the morning. Why she must have gotten up at 3 in the morning, before she milked the cows.

Her laundry was probably dry before most people had their laundry on the wash line on Monday morning. Of course Monday was the day for everyone to do laundry because you sure didn’t do it on Sunday.

Last year when I was unable to clean like I wanted to, due to my neck. I was really insecure about it. My husband made a few comments that would normally not bother me, but I was insecure and so I felt less than because I couldn’t clean my house.

I had to deal with the fact that I still found some of my worth in my ability to clean the house. This seems kind of ridiculous when you think about it. However, it wasn’t just that I found my worth in cleaning my house, I found my worth in other things I could Do instead of who I am.

I grew up with this issue because I received acceptance and compliments for a job well done and I never got an atta girl at home. I remember when I started serving tables at 18 years of age and to my surprise I was really good at it and I received many compliments.

At first I didn’t know how to receive compliments, but then I started liking it. However, I learned to find my value in what I could do. So last year when I couldn’t clean my house and I couldn’t work for 5 months, I felt pretty worthless.

It was a struggle and I had to find my value in who the Lord made me to be, not what I could do.

My Pearl today is that I get to clean my house and I get to work, but I know that I have value even if I couldn’t do either one. Thank you Jesus for the hard times last year that revealed my value as your child.

I was very conscious of my speed today and kept it way low. I keep thinking it’s not worth it to get a ticket. Today I drove in the right lane more than I did in the left lane, which is odd for me. I’m learning life in the slow lane. It’s actually more relaxing and chill. I hope it lasts.

Today I had an opportunity to set a boundary and stand my ground. In the past I would most generally have given in anytime someone makes a request of me. However, I’m learning what my limits are and how to take care of myself when I need to. Even if it means saying no to someone I don’t want to disappoint.

Back in the day I would say yes to whatever was asked of me even if it meant it wasn’t a healthy thing for me. It’s really hard to know if it’s a time to sacrifice or if it’s a time to set a boundary. Of course a person has to make that decision on a case by case situation.

My Pearl is that I’m learning how to know when I need to set a boundary and when I can sacrifice. For someone who has been abused in many different situations and struggled with boundaries, it’s an accomplishment.

Another Pearl is that I am aware of my driving and becoming a better citizen on the road. I have always loved to speed so this is a big change. I love my job and so keeping it is more important to me than my joy of speeding.